


Unknown Number

by johntracythatsall



Category: Thunderbirds
Genre: Alternate Universe, Mystery, and I was just very very bored, eos is a cat, gordon and alan are little shits, grandma is accidentally ominous, in which scott is a nervous trainwreck, virgil helps
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-14
Updated: 2016-12-14
Packaged: 2018-09-08 14:39:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8848924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/johntracythatsall/pseuds/johntracythatsall
Summary: The more time Scott stared at his phone screen, the less he understood what he was reading. It had made itself known at exactly 2:36pm, the soft vibrate of an incoming text message interrupting his brain of thoughts in a half empty subway. He had fished the cell out of his back pocket – a bad habit, John had warned him about it a million times, claiming that the world was full of people hungry for cellphones in back pockets – and glanced at the lightened screen.1 new messagefrom: UnknownIt’s done. --------------------------------Or in which Scott gets a text message from an unknown number.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on [tumblr ](http://johntracythatsall.tumblr.com/post/154439733069/unknown-number) but decided to upload this one here, too, because wHY NOT. In which I got bored, had a stupid idea stuck in my head and had to write a thing.

**2:38pm**

The more time Scott stared at his phone screen, the less he understood what he was reading. It had made itself known at exactly 2:36pm, the soft vibrate of an incoming text message interrupting his brain of thoughts in a half empty subway. He had fished the cell out of his back pocket – a bad habit, John had warned him about it a million times, claiming that the world was full of people hungry for cellphones in back pockets – and glanced at the lightened screen.

 ** _1 new message_**  
_**from:** Unknown  
It’s done._

He typed down his lock screen password and clicked the alarming message open. It didn’t make any more sense to him. ‘It’s done’? What was done? By who? Why was someone telling Scott something was done?

Scott tightened his grip on the handle hanging from the subway’s ceiling as the possible meaning of the word ‘done’ entered his mind. It couldn’t possibly mean…or could it?

The oldest Tracy brother took a quick look around the subway, trying to act as natural as he could while examining the expressions of his fellow travelers. A middle-aged, exhausted looking mother of three screaming children, an older lady reading the newest newspaper, two businessmen making up somehow awkward small talk while glancing at their expensive watches and complaining about the public transport. Needless to say, none of them seemed suspicious enough to start drawing conclusions from Scott. He checked the ceiling for any possible hidden cameras, but found none. So presumably not a candid camera thing, either.

Scott swallowed rather nervously and flipped the phone back to his pocket only to dig it back up seconds later. The text was haunting him, the mystery not leaving his worked up mind alone. A frown appeared on his face as he stared down to his phone. Done. Something was done. But what?

\--

**4:45pm**

Two hours had passed, and Scott was nowhere near the solution to his problem. He was home, sitting behind Dad’s desk – well, _his_ desk, now – his phone screen once again lit up and showing the message. Beside his phone lay a piece of paper with scrappy notes in it. The title was “What is done?” and underneath it were a couple suggestions Scott had come up with, none of them making the situation any easier for him.

_-kidnapping_  
_-assault_  
_-robbery_  
_-murder??_  
_-something else horrible?_

With a deep sigh he ran his fingers through his thick, brown hair, throwing the pen he had used to the notes on the desk. He had tons of paperwork to do and countless important Tracy Industries’ documents to read through, but the text message was currently occupying every last part of his brain, so work just had to wait. As the door suddenly burst open and the sound of his two, youngest brothers’ chatter filled the air, Scott finally felt a pang of hope – maybe the message was just a prank from Alan or Gordon. Or Alan _and_ Gordon, knowing the two of them sometimes worked in pair to make their brothers’ lives a living hell.

“Hey, Scott,” the youngest two announced their entrance in unison – as if it would’ve been possible _not_ to notice them. Scott hurryingly stood up and rushed to them, grabbing his phone on the way.

“Gordon, did you send me this text?” He asked straight, shoving the phone so near to his brother’s face he had no chance to understand the words.

“What? No,” Gordon answered but took the phone from Scott’s hand to read the text properly. “Who’s this from?”

“You think I’d be asking you if I knew?” Scott rolled his eyes. Alan threw his winter jacket on the floor and took the phone from the other blonde’s hand. His eyes widened in confusion as he read the two, short words on the screen and he handed the phone back to Scott.

“’It’s done’? What’s done?”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to solve for the last hours,” the oldest one sighed. His youngest brothers changed a look before making their way to the kitchen.

“Hey, maybe it’s a drug dealer thing. Somebody’s been punished for not paying in time,” Gordon suggested, to which Alan shook his head. “No, it’s probably like a mafia thing. A murder or something.”

Scott slumped back on his chair and buried his face in his hands. The spark of relief he had gotten after hearing his brothers come home was long gone and forgotten.

\--

**6:01pm**

“Could it be one of your coworkers?” John’s voice was carrying through the phone pressed against the oldest Tracy brother’s ear. A good suggestion – one that Scott had already thought himself approximately 2 hours ago. But no, his number was private and none of his coworkers knew about it. That’s what he told John, who hummed in response.

“And you’re absolutely _sure_ it’s not Gordon? Because you know he _has_ a history of being, erm, very…Gordon.” A good point, but Scott had already threatened to kill the said brother twice if the sender would turn out to be him and Gordon had sworn it wasn’t him – although apparently it was _‘an amazing prank, why didn’t I think of it’_.

“Yeah, it’s not him. He isn’t glowing like he usually is after a successful prank.”

“Point taken. Well, I don’t know what else it could be, then. I mean, maybe it’s just a wrong number,” John pointed out, and Scott nodded before realizing his brother couldn’t possibly see it and answered: “Yeah. Maybe.”

Then a distant sound of a crash and something breaking interrupted them, and John moaned: “Eos, get _down from there_ ,” and Scott guessed his conversation with his brother had reached its end. He was right. After a couple more seconds of hassling and mumbling his brother picked the phone up again and said: “I’m sorry, Scott, I gotta go – Eos found a way to climb up on my bookcase and she’s knocking literally everything over.” Scott snorted at the mental image of his brother’s cat pushing down all the breakable stuff his brother owned. He had to bit his lip to restrain himself from reminding John he had _told_ him taking a stray cat from the streets wouldn’t be a good idea, no matter how ‘ _hungry and lonely’_ it had been.

“Okay, well thanks, anyway,” he said and listened to his brother’s goodbye before hanging up. Alan’s head popped up from the couch, and apparently the expression on Scott’s face as he stared down to his phone revealed enough.

“John didn’t have an idea?” It was more a statement than a question, but Scott nodded, biting his lip in frustration again.

“Dude, forget about it, it’s probably just a wrong number and has nothing to do with you,” the youngest one tried, and Scott hummed something incoherent in response. Maybe it was a wrong number, maybe it wasn’t – the mystery was eating at him like mad. Gordon walked down the stairs in time to hear Alan’s answer, and he snickered, shaking his head.

“Nah, I’m starting to believe Scott here is a sleepwalker and has ordered someone to commit a murder.”

Alan nodded in agreeance, “Yeah, might be that, too,” and Scott just groaned.

\--

**6:47pm**

“So this is what you’ve been up to the whole day?” And the baffled tone in Virgil’s voice was _so not_ appreciated by the oldest brother.

“It’s driving me crazy! What if it’s a– I don’t know, a crime or something? What if I’ve been dragged into something illegal?” Scott babbled, and Virgil just placed a hand on his brother’s shoulder.

“Scott, calm down. It’s probably nothing, stop stressing yourself with it,” And Scott would’ve been just _glad_ to comply but he _couldn’t_. World was a dangerous place where terrifying things happened daily, and Scott felt like he was responsible for this one. He was, once again, sitting in Dad’s old chair, the glow of his phone screen illuminating his face in the otherwise dark room. Virgil noted the way too dramatic lightning and walked to the switch, turning the lights on.

“Well, if it’s that big of a deal for you, why haven’t you tried texting back to the number?”

“Because he’s ‘afraid somebody’s being held hostage and will be killed if it turns out an outsider has found out about the situation’,” Alan who had just entered the room quoted his oldest brother, and Scott wanted to disappear.

“It sounds a lot dumber when you say it like that,” he murmured in defense, and Virgil tried – and failed – to hide his amusement in a shrug.

“Okay, so let me call the number, then,” Virgil suggested. Scott opened his mouth to refuse the offer, but Alan was quicker, snatching the phone from Dad’s desk and handing it over to Virgil.

“Hey!” The oldest brother tried to protest, but Virgil had already clicked the call button next to the label ‘Unknown’ and was pressing the phone to his ear, raising a finger to his lips.

“Come on, Scotty, it was driving you mad. This way at least you’ll find out who it is!” Alan pointed out, before Virgil’s hesitant “Hello?” quieted both of them. The oldest locked his eyes with Virgil, who still had his finger on his lips as a sign to stay quiet. Then –

“Oh, no, it’s Virgil. Yeah, he’s here– no, I don’t think– “ A slow smirk worked its way across his face and into his eyes, making Scott feel even more uneasy, if possible. “No, he didn’t say. Okay, thanks. Yeah, I’ll tell him. Bye.” He hung up and was immediately questioned by Alan who couldn’t wait to find out who it was.

Virgil tried very hard not to grin while answering: “It was Grandma.”

Silence.

“G– Grandma?” Scott snatched the phone from his hands and stared at the screen, which still read ‘ _Unknown’_. “Wha– but how– “

“Yeah, she had gone to visit Brains and the visit turned out to be longer than she thought. She also asked if you remembered to tell us she made dinner and put it in the fridge because apparently she talked to you about it this morning.”

The food. ‘It’s done’ _._ Oh.

 _Oh_.

“Umm, I…totally forgot about that,” Scott mumbled, while Alan burst out laughing. Gordon, who had been listening to the conversation from the living room, just shook his head. “I can’t believe you wasted an entire day on something like that when all you had to do was _call_ the damn number.”

Scott felt his cheeks warm up and he sullenly pushed the phone to his back pocket, grumbling: “Why didn’t you tell her to change the unknown status off her phone?”

Virgil winked, his smile evil. “She said she’s going to text John to get ready for her to pick him up on her way home.”

Alan’s eyes widened up with realization. “Oh man, John’s gonna flip.”

\--

**7:00pm**

On the other side of the city the second oldest brother’s phone lit up with an incoming text, and another crisis began.

 ** _1 new message_**  
_**from** : __Unknown  
Be ready._


End file.
